To take full advantage of all features you need to login or register. Registration is completely free and takes only a few seconds.

2CPU.com "Infrastructure" Article

It seems that everyone is posting a "behind-the-scenes" look at their web serving iron, so we thought we'd jump in too. As you know, our current server has been giving us fits since we switched over, so we've been working in the background to deploy a nice, stable machine to collocate. Well... It's done and we have a nice write-up (I did the hardware, Jim did the software) with pictures! Check out the machine you'll be hitting starting next week when you load-up our little site.

Related Stories

09/23/2002 02:58 AM: Tyan Thunder i860 Reviewed @ 2CPU.com! by Jim
Last week, Hooz kicked off our i860 coverage (finally!) with a great look at Iwill's DP400. This week we have another i860 review for you, but this board is a completely different animal, Tyan's Thund...

09/16/2002 03:09 AM: Iwill DP400 Review at 2CPU.com by Hooz
I posted my look at Iwill's dual Xeon sporting i860 based board, the DP400. This is as entry-level as dual Xeon motherboards get, but it is still a screamer. As always, I threw in a few other systems ...

08/30/2002 03:36 AM: Athlon MP 2200+ Review at 2CPU.com by Hooz
I finally finished-up my look at AMD's new 2200+ MP. It's not quite as nice as the new revision XP's out there, but it's the fastest MP you can get, and it is based on the new .13 micron Thoroughbred ...

08/22/2002 08:52 PM: 2CPU.com reviews the ASUS AP1400R 1U server by dadmin
A while ago, I asked if anyone was interested in a lightweight review of my ASUS AP1400R Serverworks based 1U server. Well, based upon the reaction I've finally done it. If you're the type that hates ...

08/21/2002 11:02 PM: 2CPU.com Reviews Turbo's Aluminum Chassis... by Jim
Awhile back I posted a link on the front page about an Aluminum Antec SX1000 clone that was available over at TotalPCEtc for 130USD with a 420watt power supply. After that initial rush, they contacted...

08/11/2002 06:55 PM: 2CPU.com Polo Shirt... Available! by Jim
Hooz and myself have one rather large problem. We're both neither creative or even slightly talented when it comes to graphics design. Luckily for us, we have access to one of the greatest criminal mi...

08/09/2002 03:05 AM: 2CPU.com is Folding by Hooz
I just wanted to let you all know that we do indeed have our own Folding@Home Team going here at 2CPU.com. Some people have been wondering what we'll do when RC5 is over (our team is rocking over ther...

08/02/2002 03:15 AM: 2CPU.com Gear is Here! by Hooz
Okay people... By popular demand, I have setup a nice little online store where you can order some 2CPU.com gear!Currently we only have white and grey t-shirts and large coffee mugs available, but I w...

07/01/2002 09:24 AM: Iwill MPX2 reviewed at 2CPU.com by dadmin
A lot of you have been waiting to see how good Iwill's new MPX2 dual Athlon motherboard will be. The forums are full of questions and speculation. Well, speculate no more!Jim_ has emerged from the Can...

06/30/2002 05:17 PM: AOpen H600A Chassis Reviewed @ 2CPU.com! by Jim
Those of you who've been hanging around this fair site for awhile probably know we have a close relationship with AOpen. A few months ago they dropped the H600A in my lap. I was busy at the time with ...

Comment

Jim_
Administrator

Posts: 3574
Joined: 2000-03-15

#18861 Posted on: 09/27/2002 07:59 AM
I'm working on the machine right now actually. It's coming along well. Once we configure DNS we'll be ready to go live.[url="http://www.2cpu.com"][size=1]2CPU.com[/url] - Because two are always better than one![url="http://www.jimkirk.org"]jimkirk.org[/url] - Not a Myth any Longer. Just a Dad.[/size]

Comment

If you ever care to let us in on Apache and those other software bits in more detail that'd be cool. No rush!
Everything from an old P90 to dual AMD XP2000 and Sempron 2400. Run an HTPC in the living room. Laptop, wireless networking all over the place at home & work.... blah blah blah

Comment

MultimediaMan
S3n10R D3s!gN 3ng!n33r

Posts: 1457
Joined: 2000-05-12

#18863 Posted on: 09/27/2002 10:20 AM
Very cool article... The hardware, while not "bleeding edge", is certainly first rate: I can't fault any of your choices... However, since you were kind enough to let us look under the hood, now we know who to blame if the server goes down, don't we? :-)

System administrators put up with a lot, I know.Thus far, you have been adrift within the sheltered harbor of my patience.HeatAll of my heatware comes from Transactions on this board. 2CPU.com is the only board I trade on. I can provide references from other board members on request.

Comment

Mr Bill
two by two, hands of blue

Posts: 2939
Joined: 2002-02-16

#18864 Posted on: 09/27/2002 10:28 AM

Originally posted by MultimediaMan System administrators put up with a lot, I know.

Reminds me of a joke I read recently (here?). IT fellow dies and rolls up to pearly gates and gets choice of heaven or hell. Heaven is this massive computing facility with all the bells and whistles, VR facility, game, you name it. So they go to hell, Its the same facility What gives? says the IT fellow? Well if you're in heaven you get to be a user. But in hell you're the sys admin staff.
My SMP rig [URL="http://personal.palouse.net/billshan/ghost.htm#A_Merlin"]Merlin[/URL]

Comment

Mr Bill
two by two, hands of blue

Posts: 2939
Joined: 2002-02-16

#18865 Posted on: 09/27/2002 10:43 AM
A very interesting article. Its neat to find out what a responsive site like this on has for acutal hardware support.
My SMP rig [URL="http://personal.palouse.net/billshan/ghost.htm#A_Merlin"]Merlin[/URL]

Comment

mickdunde
Registered User

Posts: 716
Joined: 2001-08-17

#18866 Posted on: 09/27/2002 05:25 PM
nice reading, glad to see such article also here (we all know these types of articles from anandtech.com)
looking forward to see some fast new www.2cpu.com page!PoD | mickdunde

Comment

trapine
SMP low poster

Posts: 39
Joined: 2001-05-11

#18867 Posted on: 09/27/2002 06:30 PM
Did you ever use the zero channel raid? I've been curious as to how it performs as compared to other scsi raid options. It seems to be an interesting upgrade path - although I am leery of then always needing to find a motherboard that supports it. Besides I think that you would be stuck with buying xeons right now.
BORK!

Comment

Mr Bill
two by two, hands of blue

Posts: 2939
Joined: 2002-02-16

#18870 Posted on: 09/27/2002 08:32 PM
We must be hitting this article pretty hard. I can get the forums but not the articles.
My SMP rig [URL="http://personal.palouse.net/billshan/ghost.htm#A_Merlin"]Merlin[/URL]

Comment

Mr Bill
two by two, hands of blue

Posts: 2939
Joined: 2002-02-16

#18871 Posted on: 09/27/2002 08:42 PM
I was trying to read the Thunder K7X article and the Thunder LE-T article side by side to see if I could get some clues as to why you decided to go with the Thunder LE-T. Looking at the Adaptec ZCR page; I see that the Thunder KX7 is not yet certified for ZCR. Was that a factor in your decision to go with the pentium vs athlon solution?
My SMP rig [URL="http://personal.palouse.net/billshan/ghost.htm#A_Merlin"]Merlin[/URL]

Comment

big boi
fullblown SMP addict

Posts: 1380
Joined: 2002-02-13

#18872 Posted on: 09/27/2002 09:05 PM
they didn't end up going with 0-channel raid anyway. but i would think the tiny market of PSUs for the K7 would be an issue. that rackmount case just has regla old atx power right?

Originally posted by Mr Bill I was trying to read the Thunder K7X article and the Thunder LE-T article side by side to see if I could get some clues as to why you decided to go with the Thunder LE-T. Looking at the Adaptec ZCR page; I see that the Thunder KX7 is not yet certified for ZCR. Was that a factor in your decision to go with the pentium vs athlon solution?

Comment

Jim_
Administrator

Posts: 3574
Joined: 2000-03-15

#18873 Posted on: 09/27/2002 09:59 PM

Originally posted by big boi they didn't end up going with 0-channel raid anyway. but i would think the tiny market of PSUs for the K7 would be an issue. that rackmount case just has regla old atx power right?

Considering that we wanted to put our webserver in a 1U chassis, an Athlon MP solution wasn't overly attractive to us. The Tualatins are fast, cool running, and they have more L2 cache for crunching through our database.

Furthermore, while I can't speak for Hooz, at least I have more faith in a Serverworks-based solution.[url="http://www.2cpu.com"][size=1]2CPU.com[/url] - Because two are always better than one![url="http://www.jimkirk.org"]jimkirk.org[/url] - Not a Myth any Longer. Just a Dad.[/size]

Comment

ReMeDy
Administrator

Posts: 12389
Joined: 2001-02-10

#18874 Posted on: 09/27/2002 10:11 PM
Mr.Bill if you read this section of the article, then it clearly explains why ThunderK7X was NOT an option. We work with what we have. The text is bold print explains first reasoning behind it.

Coppermine PIII's were starting to become a "dime a dozen" as they say, and I had a pair of reasonably fast ones kicking around at the time, so we weren't too concerned about the CPU's. That is, until Upaboveit ran across a -really- nice deal on a pair of 1.13ghz PIII-S' ("Tualatin" with 512k cache). As I said before, databases eat cache for lunch, so we jumped on the pair of Tuallies.

The "Tualatin" PIII's did more than provide a bigger L2 cache for us though. Because they are based on a smaller process (.13 micron) than that of the "Coppermine" PIII's, they used less voltage and put out a lot less heat. In a small rackmount case, heat can be a killer and with the integrated heat-spreader and lower heat output in general, the "Tualatin" is a perfect match for us. Since I wasn't sure what case the machine was going in quite yet, I figured the Alpha's 1U cooler would be a good bet. They cool the 1.13's just fine, and a 1U case was definitely an option for us. Better safe than sorry.

The Memory

As for memory, Jim and I each had 512mb of of Registered ECC PC133 (the Serverworks chipset requires Registered ECC) for motherboard testing, so we combined it all to make an even 1024mb of system memory. We wanted more, but hey, 1gb of memory is 1gb of memory, so we were set to live with it. Until a very generous reader (Thanks Jason!) offered to trade/donate some memory. When the deal was settled, we had 2gb of PC133 Registered ECC memory.

It was one of those cases where we could've gotten by with the 1gb that we had, but having more is not going to hurt us (Heh) and it provides a bit of headroom for the future. With the majority of the "major" stuff covered, it was time to make some tough decisions.

Second, Having reviewed the Serverworks board previously. It made sense. Serverworks+Intel .13|[size=1][url=http://forums.2cpu.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=279831#post279831][color=yellow]FAQ's[/url][/color][/size]|Heatware-Remedy{WcS}|Dual760|Beerology|

Comment

QuintLeo
SMP? How do you want it?

Posts: 1863
Joined: 2002-06-07

#18875 Posted on: 09/28/2002 12:27 AM
I'm curious, since you went with Slackware (8.1 I'm guessing?) why you didn't look at Software RAID as an option - especially with the probably overkill you have on the CPU side.
2xCel500 (oc600) on a BP6 and 2xCel533 (oc600) on another BP6 | 2xXP1800+ on a s2460 and 1xXP1800+ (so far) on a s2462

Comment

Mr Bill
two by two, hands of blue

Posts: 2939
Joined: 2002-02-16

#18876 Posted on: 09/28/2002 12:54 AM
Thank you Remedy. However, I don't actually think that is clear in the way it is written. I supposed from the text that the choices were made and then the CPU deal was found and fortunately we have the memory. Its not clear (to me at least) from the presentation that the CPU's and memory were what needed a matching motherboard. Once its said, then I see the reasoning. The heat issue I'm not sure is pertinant. It was not presented as a deal breaker either. AnandTech did it in a 1U Athlon MP solution so I think its can be solved. However, it is a nice perk that the Pentium system runs cooler as an extra bonus and thats how it sounds.

I was out mowing the lawn but I see the site is responding again.
My SMP rig [URL="http://personal.palouse.net/billshan/ghost.htm#A_Merlin"]Merlin[/URL]

Comment

Hooz
Administrator

Posts: 2388
Joined: 2000-03-29

#18877 Posted on: 09/28/2002 03:42 AM
Okay... Being on a pretty tight budget, I was kind of working with what I (we) had. While I did have the Thunder K7X inhouse, I did not have a 1U or 2U power supply capable of running it. I did have most everything needed to run the dual PIII's though, including the standard ATX PSU's to fit the cases I had.

It's wasn't a reliability decision at all. I've been using dual Athlon boxes since, well, before they were released and I have yet to experience any problem that a bit of hardware swapping couldn't fix (Damned ATI drivers!). If I would've had, or had access to, a 1U or 2U case with the cooling and power requirements for a dual Athlon machine, I wouldn't have hesitated in using it.

As it ended-up, I think the machine I built will be plenty to handle our loads well into the future. Not to mention what Jim already said... The Tuallies are fast, have more L2 cache and are cooler running equivelent Athlons. They are -perfectly- suited for what we are using them for.
[size=1][url="http://www.2cpu.com"]2CPU.com[/url] - Because two are always better than one!
Are you folding? [url="http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/team_summary.php?s=&t=3074"]2CPU.com Folding@Home Team[/url][url="http://www.heatware.com/eval.php?id=19979"]My Heatware[/url][/size]

Comment

Mr Bill
two by two, hands of blue

Posts: 2939
Joined: 2002-02-16

#18878 Posted on: 09/28/2002 05:09 AM
Thanks for clarifying things. It sounds like a good setup for a great price.
My SMP rig [URL="http://personal.palouse.net/billshan/ghost.htm#A_Merlin"]Merlin[/URL]

Comment

spikegifted
I do what?

Posts: 6131
Joined: 2000-07-24

#18879 Posted on: 10/02/2002 12:33 AM
guys, you have all my admiration on the excellent job you're doing with this site! i look forward to the day when 2cpu.com's dedicated server is online. spikegifted.net
"At the very beginning of the 19th century chemists generally thought that compounds from living organisms were too complicated in structure to be capable of artificial synthesis from non-living things, and that a 'vital force' or vitalism conferred the characteristics of living beings on this form of matter." Well, how wrong were they? So much for dogma...

Comment

bdohmen
SMP Sailor

Posts: 671
Joined: 2001-10-26

#18880 Posted on: 10/30/2002 08:08 PM
I'm building a new 1u box and really like the case you guys used, so I wander over to rackmount.com and check it out.....$500 I know this is the perverbial "I want it but dont want to pay for it" dilemma, but is there anything similiar (slim cd, floppy, removable hdd (pref ide)) for like <200?
| MSI 875 Neo | P4 2.4C | 1024MB PC3200 | WD Raptor |